High-ranking March 8 sources refuted claims that the cabinet formation process has gone back to the starting point over crippling demands by the new parliamentary majority.

The sources told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published Saturday that the media and political sources began inventing rumors about an alleged stalemate despite agreement between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on the name of the interior minister.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat criticized the new majority for its disability to form the cabinet, accusing it of being paralyzed.

Jumblat said on Friday during the opening ceremony of the National Center for Development and Rehabilitation that the politicians are the “retarded” ones for disagreeing over shares in the government while “the country is on the verge of collapse.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat expressed the Syrian officials’ annoyance over the delay in the Lebanese cabinet formation, after his return from Damascus Thursday night.

“The Syrian officials are aware of the true reasons behind the delay in the government formation,” according to information obtained by al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday.

Syria has allegedly been behind the latest Hizbullah proposal to end the government formation impasse after the aides of the speaker and the Hizbullah leader met with Syrian officials in Damascus.

According to An Nahar daily, Syria gave the “password” to MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil who returned to Beirut with new suggestions, including three possible names to head the interior ministry, which has been behind the three-month stalemate.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat confirmed to As Safir newspaper on Wednesday that ‘positive indications’ reveal a progress in the attempts to solve the interior ministry stalemate.

The names that are being studied to lead the ministry are “excellent,” he said, hoping that the mediation of Hizbullah with the cooperation of Speaker Nabih Berri would succeed.

Some sides in the March 14 forces have begun to wonder whether Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat’s latest position towards the new majority is a sign that he is leaving the camp, reported the daily An Nahar on Tuesday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted that Jumblat “is becoming fed up with the current situation in Lebanon and I don’t know whether that will force him to change his political position.”

The latest stance of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat drew mixed reactions but the bluntest attack came from the Free Patriotic Movement which urged him to give up his demands in the new cabinet.

“If Walid Jumblat was so disdainful, then let him give up the public works ministry first and withdraw his unprecedented demands,” FPM circles told As Safir daily in remarks published Tuesday.

Reports about the possible formation of a 14-member technocrat government began making the rounds again as a way to end the cabinet impasse with the least possible damage.

Al-Liwaa daily said Tuesday that Premier-designate Najib Miqati could resort to such an option after contacts aimed at ending the deadlock on the interior ministry portfolio did not lead to positive results.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has stressed that he had good relations with Syria and would continually visit Damascus.

“I don’t want to snap back at the fabrications made about my last visit to Syria,” Jumblat told As Safir daily in remarks published Tuesday about reports that he had returned from Damascus empty handed.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has denied that his latest stance from the March 8 forces and the cabinet formation impasse meant he had fallen out of the new parliamentary majority.

On Monday, Jumblat issued a stern warning to the March 8 coalition, accusing it of failing to form the new government. The Druze chief’s new stance was seen as a blunt attack on the Hizbullah-led alliance, but Jumblat stressed to An Nahar daily in remarks published Tuesday that his statement did not reflect a change in his policies.